The ancient history of kissing.

Sources from Mesopotamia contextualize the emergence of kissing and its role in disease transmission.

Female ejaculation: An update on anatomy, history, and controversies.

Female ejaculation is a contentious topic. From a review of the literature, history indicates that it is not a modern concept; some females were aware of it in times past without understanding the role of the fluid or composition of the ejaculate. Over time, scholars experimented, mainly with anatomical studies, in an attempt to identify the source of the ejaculate and explore its physiological and anatomical benefits for the female sexual experience. Despite these studies, views about female ejaculation remain controversial and inconsistent, with no clear conclusion as to its function. This review discusses the history of studies of female ejaculation and presents various hypotheses from an anatomical and physiological perspective. After reviewing 44 publications from 1889 to 2019, it became apparent that clinical and anatomical studies conducted during recent decades provide substantial evidence in support of the female ejaculatory phenomenon. Anatomical studies have shown that the ejaculate originates in the paraurethral (Skene's) glands, but its composition has been debated. Female ejaculate differs from urine in its creatinine and urea concentrations. The fluid also contains prostate specific antigen (PSA) and could have antibacterial properties that serve to protect the urethra. While the specific function of female ejaculation remains a topic of debate, there is sufficient evidence to support the existence of the phenomenon.

[Physical culture, bodies and sexualities in the journal Cultura Sexual y Física, 1937-1941]. / Cultura física, cuerpos y sexualidades en la revista Cultura Sexual y Física, 1937-1941.

This study analyzes the different meanings produced, transmitted and circulated by the journal Cultura Sexual y Física (1937-1941) about sexualities, bodies, desires and forms of otherness from the standpoint of and based on physical culture. In the journal, which was published in Buenos Aires but had an international readership, we examine these issues from a gender perspective via critical discursive analysis in order to demonstrate the nuances, continuities and departure points with regard to the dominant discourse. Hence, we show the polemics triggered by this publication and the attacks on it by conservative sectors, which led to it being banned.

En este trabajo se analizan los distintos sentidos que produjo, transmitió y puso en circulación la revista Cultura Sexual y Física (1937-1941) respecto de las sexualidades, los cuerpos, los deseos y las otredades desde y a partir del campo de la cultura física. Editada en Buenos Aires, pero con una circulación a escala internacional, examinaremos aquellos tópicos desde una perspectiva de género y a través del análisis crítico del discurso para dar cuenta de los matices, continuidades e inflexiones discursivas respecto del discurso dominante. En este sentido, señalaremos las polémicas que suscitó la publicación y los ataques recibidos por parte de sectores conservadores que llevaron a la prohibición de la revista.

Patricia Brennan.

Interview with Patricia Brennan, who studies genital co-evolution and sexual conflict in vertebrates at Mount Holyoke College.

Cultura física, cuerpos y sexualidades en la revista cultura sexual y física, 1937-1941 / Physical culture, bodies and sexualities in the journal cultura sexual y física, 1937-1941

Resumen En este trabajo se analizan los distintos sentidos que produjo, transmitió y puso en circulación la revista Cultura Sexual y Física (1937-1941) respecto de las sexualidades, los cuerpos, los deseos y las otredades desde y a partir del campo de la cultura física. Editada en Buenos Aires, pero con una circulación a escala internacional, examinaremos aquellos tópicos desde una perspectiva de género y a través del análisis crítico del discurso para dar cuenta de los matices, continuidades e inflexiones discursivas respecto del discurso dominante. En este sentido, señalaremos las polémicas que suscitó la publicación y los ataques recibidos por parte de sectores conservadores que llevaron a la prohibición de la revista.

Abstract This study analyzes the different meanings produced, transmitted and circulated by the journal Cultura Sexual y Física (1937-1941) about sexualities, bodies, desires and forms of otherness from the standpoint of and based on physical culture. In the journal, which was published in Buenos Aires but had an international readership, we examine these issues from a gender perspective via critical discursive analysis in order to demonstrate the nuances, continuities and departure points with regard to the dominant discourse. Hence, we show the polemics triggered by this publication and the attacks on it by conservative sectors, which led to it being banned.

Twins Reared Apart: Zygotic Division After Artificial Insemination/Twin Research Reviews: Selective Resuscitation of Premature Twins; Scientist Jailed for Editing Twins' Genes; Sexual Arousal Patterns in MZ Twins Discordant for Sexual Orientation; MZ Twins With Jejuno-Ileal Atresia/Media Reports: Twin Girls' Search for a Bone Marrow Donor; Puppy with a Possible Parasitic Twin; Twins in Silicon Valley; Surgical Separation of Craniopagus Twins; Twin-Based New Yorker Magazine Cartoon; Twin Tragedies.

This article opens with the brief life histories of reared-apart monozygotic (MZ) male twins. A New York City program that helped childless couples conceive via artificial insemination from the 1930s to the 1950s is examined as it related to these twins. The frequency with which pregnancies following assisted reproductive technology resulted in MZ twin pairs is also provided. Next, summaries of twin research concerning selective resuscitation, gene editing, sexual arousal and jejuno-ileal atresia are presented. The article ends with media reports of twin girls' efforts to find a bone marrow donor for their father, possible parasitic twinning in a puppy, identical female twins' business venture, the surgical separation of craniopagus twins, a twin-themed magazine cartoon and tragic events involving identical male twins.

Effects of Individual Mortality Experience on Out-of-Wedlock Fertility in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Krummhörn, Germany.

Life history theory predicts that exposure to high mortality in early childhood leads to faster and riskier reproductive strategies. Individuals who grew up in a high mortality regime will not overly wait until they find a suitable partner and form a stable union because premature death would prevent them from reproducing. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine whether women who experienced sibling death during early childhood (0-5 years) reproduced earlier and were at an increased risk of giving birth to an illegitimate child, with illegitimacy serving as a proxy for risky sexual behavior. Furthermore, we investigate whether giving birth out of wedlock is influenced by individual mortality experience or by more promiscuous sexual behavior that is clustered in certain families. Models are fitted on pedigree data from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Krummhörn population in Germany. The results show a relationship between sibling death in early childhood and the risk of reproducing out of wedlock, and reproductive timing. The risk of giving birth out of wedlock is linked to individual mortality experience rather than to family-level effects. In contrast, adjustments in connubial reproductive timing are influenced more by family-level effects than by individual mortality experience.

Away with the fairies: the psychopathology of visionary encounters in early modern Scotland.

In early modern Scotland, several visionaries experienced vivid relationships with spirits. This paper analyses their experiences historically, with the aid of modern scholarship in medicine, psychology and social science. Most of the visionaries were women. Most of their spirit-guides were fairies or ghosts. There could be traumas in forming or maintaining the relationship, and visionaries often experienced spirit-guides as powerful, capricious and demanding. It is argued that some visionaries experienced psychotic conditions, including psychosomatic injuries, sleepwalking, mutism and catatonia. Further conditions related to visionary experience were not necessarily pathological, notably fantasy-proneness and hallucinations. Imaginary companions and parasocial relationships are discussed, as are normality, abnormality and coping strategies. There are concluding reflections on links between culture and biology.

Los saberes científicos y sus perspectivas en torno a las prácticas sexuales entre varones en Chile 1884-1916 / Scientific knowledge and its perspectives on sexual practices between men in Chile

En el presente artículo, en primer lugar analizaremos los planteamientos de la ciencia médica chilena desde 1884 hasta 1916 en relación con las prácticas sexuales entre varones (la medicina legal, la teoría de la degeneración, la antropología criminal y la neuropatología). En segundo lugar caracterizaremos las conceptualizaciones empleadas por los médicos y abogados chilenos (descripciones que estaban hegemonizadas por la ciencia medica) en relación a la sexualidad entre varones: sodomía, inversión, pederastia y homosexualidad (AU)

Histories of psychology after Stonewall: Introduction to the special issue.

This article introduces the special issue Fifty Years Since Stonewall: The Science and Politics of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Here, the commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall uprising frames our discussion of issues of representation that arise in commemorating events in general, and events in the history of psychology in particular. We describe how the articles in the special issue expand the existing narratives about the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender psychology that are centered in the United States, focused primarily on sexual orientation and often end, rather than begin, in the time of Stonewall. The international scope of the special issue can suggest new ways to particularize histories of psychology since Stonewall that are centered on the United States. We describe the ideological context that shapes the doing of psychology since Stonewall, the telling of the histories of that psychology, and how "the problem of speaking for others" arises in contexts of power, including the curation of the special issue itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Homosexuality and psychiatry in state-socialist Hungary: Representing women's same-sex desire in the psychomedical literature.

This study explores representations of homosexuality in the psychiatric and sexology literature between the 1960s and the 1980s in Hungary with special attention to women. The literature is indicative of how psy sciences interacted with the system of norms on gender and sexual orientation embedded within the social and political context of the era. Examination of these sources shows a predominantly pathologizing-normative discursive framework deployed by experts. The fundamental therapeutic aim was to achieve good social adaptation. In this process, psy experts were influential representatives of the heteronormative society, reinforcing gender norms and state-socialist family ideals. Within the psychological discourses on homosexuality, the case of women had some special characteristics. Their sexual choices were represented as more alterable than men's and linked to emotional factors in the first place. In women's case, there was usually no "need" for therapeutic conversion because socially prescribed gender norms worked strongly enough and the lack of sexual pleasure with men was not considered a significant problem. Professional and popular psychiatric and sexology literature on homosexuality indicate that whereas for men, transgressing normative (hetero)sexuality was the stronger taboo, for women, it was the unfulfilled order of marriage and motherhood that was considered the most serious deviance, and lesbian relationships had to be prevented for this reason. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Queering the history of South African psychology: From apartheid to LGBTI+ affirmative practices.

This article constructs a brief history of how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues have intersected with South African psychology at key sociopolitical moments, filling a gap in current histories. Organized psychology-a primary focus of this analysis-since its first formations in 1948, mostly colluded with apartheid governments by othering queerness as psychopathology or social deviance. The National Party, both homophobic and racist, ruled the country from 1948 until the first democratic elections in 1994. The acceleration of antiapartheid struggles in the 1980s saw progressive psychologists develop more critical forms of theory and practice. However, LGBTI+ issues remained overshadowed by the primary struggle for racial equality and democracy. Psychology's chameleon-like adaptation to evolving eras resulted in a unified organization when apartheid ended: the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA). Democratic South Africa's Constitution took the bold step of protecting sexuality as a fundamental human right, galvanizing a fresh wave of LGBTI+ scholarship post-1994. However, LGBTI+ people still suffered prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Additionally, psychology training continued to ignore sexual orientation and gender-affirmative health care in curricula. PsySSA therefore joined the International Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Issues (IPsyNet) in 2007, catalyzing the PsySSA African LGBTI+ Human Rights Project in 2012 and two pioneering publications: a position statement on affirmative practice in 2013, and practice guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and gender-diverse people in 2017. This article traces a neglected history of South African psychology, examining the political, social, and institutional factors that eventually enabled the development of LGBTI+ affirmative psychologies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Emergence of a transnational LGBTI psychology: Commonalities and challenges in advocacy and activism.

This contribution explores the historical developments of transnational lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) psychology in Colombia, the Philippines, Russia, and South Africa in relationship to U.S. LGBT psychology. LGBTI psychology in these diverse contexts share commonalities but also have important variations in their development and focus within LGBTI concerns. The International Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Issues (IPsyNet) provides a model for international professional psychology collaboration and linkage on behalf of advocacy for LGBTI rights and sexual orientation and gender identity and/or expression concerns. Although there is the risk of transnational LGBTI psychology(ies) reproducing European-North American (Euro-N.A.) "homonationalism" and contributing to neo-colonization, these case examples illustrate the dynamic potential of transnational LGBTI psychology, including the possibilities of psychology to develop LGBTI psychologies drawing from indigenous as well as international structures and platforms, influencing Euro-N.A. models in the process. Finally, this article describes the promise and the limitations of transnational LGBTI psychology, including the role of human rights frameworks, as well as advocacy within professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Masculinity, femininity, and leadership: Taking a closer look at the alpha female.

An extensive review and textual analysis of the academic and popular literature of the human alpha female was conducted to examine the social construction and expression of the alpha female identity in a small non-random sample of North American women (N = 398). This review revealed 2 predominant alpha female representations in the literature-one more masculine versus one more feminine-and 21 alpha female variables. In this sample of women, the "alpha female" was found to be a recognized socially constructed female identity. Univariate analysis revealed positive and highly significant differences in self-reported mean scores between alpha (N = 94) and non-alpha (N = 304) females for 10 variables including, masculine traits, leadership, strength, low introversion, self-esteem, life satisfaction, sexual experience, initiates sex, enjoys sex and playing a dominant role in sexual encounters, with alpha females scoring higher than non-alphas. The measure of masculine traits was identified as the only predictor of alpha female status as per the multiple regression model. Interestingly, both alpha and non-alpha women scored the same for the measure of feminine traits. Further, both groups scored higher for feminine traits than masculine traits. The results also revealed that neither social dominance nor sexual dominance were predictors of alpha female status which challenge academic and popularized representations of this identity. The results suggest that although the alpha female is often regarded as an exceptional and, at times, an exoticized form of femininity, like other femininities, her identity is marked by contradictions and tensions.

Songs of Sodom: Singing About the Unmentionable Vice in the Early Modern Low Countries.

Although sodomy was purportedly an "unmentionable vice" in the early modern period, popular songs from the Low Countries paint a different picture. Bringing musical sources to bear upon the subject adds an extra dimension to the now widely held view that sodomy was a multimedia phenomenon in early modern society. Sodomy was represented in art, literature, poetry, and popular song as well. These songs were pedagogical in that they aimed to encourage performers and audience to live a pious life, and they stimulated the formation of confessional identities. By drawing attention to this neglected chapter in the history of homosexuality-popular song in the early modern Low Countries-this article seeks to contribute to the research on cultural perceptions of sodomy in the period.

Vaginal Jade Eggs: Ancient Chinese Practice or Modern Marketing Myth?

OBJECTIVE: To identify evidence that vaginal jade eggs were recommended or used in sexual health practices or for pelvic muscle exercises in ancient Chinese culture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search of the online databases of 4 major Chinese art and archeology collections in the United States. RESULTS: More than 5000 jade objects were viewable in online databases. No vaginal jade eggs were identified. CONCLUSIONS: No evidence was found to support the claim that vaginal jade eggs were used for any indication in ancient Chinese culture.

La patologización del celibato en la medicina española (1820-1920) / The pathologization of celibacy in spanish medicine (1820-1920)

En la España de la Restauración, la novela naturalista y la prensa anticlerical insistían en que la causa principal de la depravación sexual de los sacerdotes era el voto de castidad. ¿En qué medida las tecnologías de saber y de poder médicos de la época permitían defender esa tesis? Este es el asunto abordado en el artículo. En primer lugar se examinan los antecedentes ilustrados de la ofensiva higienista contra el celibato sexual. En segundo lugar se analiza la controversia suscitada por Monlau con su defensa higiénica de la castidad sexual. Los argumentos de Monlau tienen lugar en un contexto de propaganda a favor del celibato suscitada por la Iglesia Católica. En tercer lugar se exploran los argumentos médicos que conectaban causalmente la continencia absoluta con las desviaciones sexuales, en particular la pederastia. Por último se indican las circunstancias que, a comienzos del siglo XX, llevaron a reactivar la defensa médica de la abstinencia sexual entre los jóvenes, anunciando un nuevo prototipo de masculinidad

In the Spain of the Restoration, the naturalist novel and the anticlerical press insisted that the main cause of the sexual depravity of priests was the vow of chastity. To what extent the technologies of knowledge and medical power of the time allowed to defend that thesis? This is the issue addressed in the article. First, we examine the enlightened background of the hygienist offensive against sexual celibacy. Secondly, the controversy raised by Monlau with his hygienic defense of sexual chastity is analyzed. The arguments of Monlau take place in a context of propaganda in favor of celibacy raised by the Spanish Catholic Church. Third, the medical arguments that causally connected absolute continence with sexual deviations, particularly "pederasty", are explored. Finally, we indicate the circumstances that, at the beginning of the 20th century, led to reactivate the medical defense of sexual abstinence among young people, announcing a new pattern of masculinity

'Gushing Out Blood': Defloration and Menstruation in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.

John Cleland's 1740s pornographic novel, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure repeatedly depicts and eroticises the act of defloration. As such it is a revealing illustration of what Ivan Bloch termed the 'defloration mania' of the eighteenth century. This article maps narrative events on to contemporary medical depictions of first intercourse to show the ways that the theories and ideas presented in medical and pseudo-medical texts transferred into erotic fiction and demonstrates how in some instances the bloody defloration scenes can be read as being sex during menstruation, an act which was culturally forbidden at this time.